Underage drinking has numerous negative consequences. Drinking heavily is more common among rural than urban underage populations and more likely among Native Americans than other ethnic groups, with rural American Indians drinking even more than their urban counterparts. The proposed cooperative agreement, detailed in this grant application, has a primary goal of developing and enriching the capacity of the Indian Health Council (IHC) and affiliated coalitions to address the problem of underage drinking in their communities. IHC serves nine Indian reservations in rural northern San Diego County. In order to achieve this goal, this cooperative agreement draws upon the combined strengths of the Indian Health Council, Inc. (IHC), Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation's Prevention Research Center (PRC), and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla. The specific aims of this project are: 1. To evaluate and upgrade the capacity of IHC to assess the extent of underage drinking in the areas that it serves. This aim will be implemented by training IHC and coalition members in techniques of quantitative survey design and implementation and qualitative data collection, analysis and utilization in order to develop in-clinic capacity to implement brief surveys to assess the extent and nature of underage drinking on the reservations, including where and how reservation youth obtain the alcohol they consume. 2. To evaluate and strengthen the capacity of IHC to intervene to reduce underage drinking. To accomplish this IHC, PRC and TSRI staff will conduct a series of seminars, workshops and training sessions for coalition members, reservation leaders, and interested community members on techniques for environmental prevention of alcohol problems and training for IHC physicians and staff on Motivational Intervention as a brief intervention technique for intervention with youth who have emerging alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Process evaluation will document the actions taken by the IHC, community coalitions, and reservation leadership with respect to the treatment and prevention of underage drinking in order to form a baseline prior to the intervention phase (Phase II). 3. To mobilize specific sectors of the community to partner with IHC in preparation for implementation and evaluation of preventive interventions designed to address underage drinking in this population. The cooperative agreement promises to both enrich and document the ways in which American Indians living in and around rural reservations can apply environmental prevention and brief interventions to reduce the incidence of underage drinking in their communities. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]